Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A giant leap for Britain, too

Doug MillardDaily-Telegraph

The success of Project Apollo in landing a man on the Moon, 40 years ago this month, has become an emblem of American might and know-how: a vast technical and organisational undertaking, involving 400,000 people, to demonstrate the superiority of America over the Soviet Union.

Yet what is overlooked is that while the great bulk of those involved were indeed American citizens, there was also a significant foreign contribution, in particular from Britain. One engineer was so important that President Nixon would later admit that without his work, the Moon landing of July 21, 1969 would have been impossible.